Andrew Puzder has withdrawn as President Donald Trump’s choice for labor secretary, a source close to Puzder and a senior administration official said.

The decision came as Senate Republicans told the White House he was losing support, a senior GOP source said, adding there were four firm Republican no votes and possibly up to 12.

Puzder needs at least 50 votes to pass with the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Mike Pence, and Republicans only hold control of 52 seats.

Puzder, the CEO of the company that owns the Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. fast food chains, has faced fierce opposition mostly from Democrats in part related to his position on labor issues as well as the fact that he employed an undocumented housekeeper.

“No matter how you cut it, there is no worse pick for labor secretary than Andrew Puzder, and I’m encouraged my Republican colleagues are starting to agree,” the New York Democrat said. “He does not belong anywhere near the Labor Department, let alone at the head of it. Puzder’s disdain for the American worker, the very people he would be responsible for protecting, is second to none.”

THE COMPANY RUN by Andy Puzder, who President Trump has nominated for secretary of labor, ran an illegal wage-fixing scheme for managers at his company’s restaurants, according to a class-action lawsuit filed in California superior court last week.

Puzder is the CEO of the vast Carl Karcher Enterprises (CKE) fast-food chain. One former and one current Carl’s Jr. shift leader allege that franchisees – which Puzder has repeatedly described as independent businesses — colluded with one another to prevent managers from moving between restaurants.

As alleged, the scheme also appears to violate federal law under the Sherman Antitrust Act, as an illegal restraint of trade. That would be a felony punishable by a $1 million fine and up to 10 years in prison for individuals charged.

AFTER being delayed four times already, the Senate on Thursday is expected to consider the nomination of Andrew Puzder to lead the Department of Labor. The department’s job is to protect workers by ensuring minimum-wage and overtime payment, safe and healthy workplaces, and maintaining critical workforce statistics. If Puzder is confirmed as Secretary, DOL’s fundamental enforcement role will be in jeopardy.

There is an epidemic of wage theft in the United States. A survey of more than 4,000 low-wage workers conducted by the National Employment Law Project indicated that more than 1 million employees were not paid minimum wage, not paid overtime and not given the breaks that they are entitled to. Among those low-wage workers surveyed:

• 26 percent were paid below minimum wage in the previous week, and fully 60 percent of those workers were underpaid by $1 an hour or more.

• 75 percent were not paid overtime after working more than 40 hours in the previous week.

• Nearly 75 percent were not paid for “off the clock” hours worked beyond their daily shift.

• An overwhelming majority (86 percent) were not provided meal or rest breaks.

When President Donald Trump nominated St. Louis’ Andy Puzder to serve as the secretary of labor, it was a slap in the face to millions of working people in this country. On the Washington University campus, it hit especially hard.

Why? Not only is Puzder the chief executive of the parent company of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., fast-food restaurant chains long associated with paying people as little as possible and in many instances breaking the law by failing to pay cooks and cashiers for hours they worked, but he is also a graduate of the Washington University School of Law. He currently serves on the law school’s National Council and is a donor to the university.

From our perspective as working people at Washington University — one of us an adjunct faculty member for 19 years and the other a janitor for more than 22 years — we have serious concerns about Puzder’s nomination.

While it may seem unlikely, we have a lot in common with the tens of thousands of underpaid workers in St. Louis and tens of millions of workers nationwide — including the cooks and cashiers at Puzder’s restaurants — all of us struggling to make ends meet and create a better life for our families.

Torrance Chambers has been calling Andy Puzder for weeks to talk to him about a problem with his paycheck from the Hardee’s restaurant where he works in Birmingham, Alabama. Ordinarily, Chambers wouldn’t bother the CEO of the fast-food chain’s parent company, CKE, Inc., but he claims his shift leader, store manager and several higher-ups told him no one else could help. Chambers said his store issues paychecks only in the form of a prepaid Visa debit card — and it comes with fees. He’d prefer to get a paper check or a direct deposit, the way he has at other jobs.

“In order to get the money out the card, you have to go to the ATM, and the one I have to go to, they charge $3.95 for every transaction I have,” said Chambers. He said he’s been charged different fees for using the card in stores and for paying his bills, and there’s no option to get his full paycheck at any particular bank or store without being charged.

“Including food and gas and everything, in a week, total, I’m out $80 [just on transaction fees]. And I’m only getting paid roughly $250 a week,” he said. These fees mean that Chambers’ real wages are significantly less than the national minimum wage required by law, $7.25 an hour.

Having received no return call from Puzder, Chambers filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor on January 25, 2017, alleging minimum-wage violations related to the cards, as well as other problems at the store.

Southern California is known for its sunny weather, beautiful beaches, and a few bustling cities. But soon it will get a dubious distinction – Carpinteria business owner and U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) nominee Andrew Puzder.

To call Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominations controversial would be an understatement. It is no secret that many of Trump’s nominees have connections with corporations whose profit-driven interests are directly at odds with the federal agencies Trump has selected them to lead. In that regard, Trump’s selection of Andrew Puzder to lead Labor is no different from many of his other choices.

However, Puzder’s nomination also represents a major broken promise to working families. After all, Trump made protecting American workers a central theme of his campaign and his plan for his first 100 days in office. Despite this promise, Trump chose Puzder – a man who prefers automated robots to human employees – to be the primary advocate for workers in his administration. Instead of a labor secretary who supports working families, Trump wants to give workers an anti-labor secretary.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called on President Donald Trump to withdraw the nomination of Andrew Puzder, to head the Labor Department, citing his record as a business executive and his position on labor issues.

“They ought to withdraw Mr. Puzder before he further embarrasses this administration and further exposes the hypocrisy of President Trump, who says one thing to the American worker and does another,” the New York Democrat said Thursday at a news conference, referencing Puzder, the CEO of CKE Restaurants, which runs Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr.

Schumer said Puzder’s record contradicts campaign promises Trump made to the working class.

“You could not have picked a worse nominee to uphold these goals than Andew Puzder,” he said. “Everything in his career is antithetical to the goals of the Department of Labor.”

Workers at the shipyard where I work are like most others in Maine. We get up every day, we go to work and we do our best for our co-workers and our employer. We work hard. We just ask that in return we get a fair shake: wages to provide for our family, a safe workplace, rights on the job and a chance to continue to improve our lives. That’s not asking for too much. This is the basic promise of the American dream.

Key to delivering on this promise is a strong Department of Labor. The Department of Labor was created by Congress over 100 years ago, and historically, the secretary of labor has sought to improve the lives of workers, by ensuring that employers deliver fair wages, safe working conditions and ladders of opportunity.

Unfortunately, the current nominee for secretary of labor, Andrew Puzder, doesn’t share this vision. His track record clearly indicates he has no interest in honoring this mission and advancing the lives of workers. Instead, Puzder, as CEO of CKE Restaurants (owner of the Hardees and Carl’s Jr. chains), has proven that he is more interested in squeezing profits out of workers than in honoring their needs for safe work and decent pay.